DEA Finally Admits Marijuana is Medicine

If you thought they were going to issue a formal apology after decades of flagrant dishonesty, you would be mistaken. But the DEA is at long last conceding Marijuana’s incredible medical value…by giving pharmaceutical companies exclusive permission to make pills out of it. “Marijuana has no scientifically proven medical value.” So stated the United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) on page six of a July 2010 agency white paper, titled “DEA Position on Marijuana.”

Yet only four months after the agency committed its “no medical pot” stance to print, it announced its intent to allow for the regulation and marketing of pharmaceutical products containing plant-derived THC — the primary psychoactive ingredient in Cannabis. (Alternet)

DEA can try to frame this any way they like, but the bottom line remains that authorizing cultivation for pharmaceutical companies is the end of the debate. Over. Done. Whatever nuanced distinctions the enemies of medical marijuana seek to advance from this point forward will be devastated by the simple fact that new medicines are being made out of marijuana with the blessing of the Drug Enforcement Administration.

Conspiracy theories will abound, of course, regarding the potential for a widespread campaign to shut down state-level medical marijuana programs and instead shove expensive pills down the throats of patients, while arresting providers and cultivators who refuse to comply. That isn’t going to happen. As much as the DEA and their corporate co-conspirators might fantasize about it, a full-scale assault on the medical cannabis industry is simply impossible from both a practical and political standpoint. These laws were put in place by the people and they won’t be done away with over our objections.

On the contrary, the emergence of cannabis-based pharmaceuticals has real potential to vest corporate interests with a stake in the drug’s overall reputation. Rather than distancing themselves from the origins of their products, manufacturers of THC-based medications will recognize that associating their product with marijuana is in fact a shrewd marketing ploy. Marinol has already done exactly that. People love pot and that’s going to be the key to selling these pills. As a result, we could soon be witnessing a seemingly impossible scenario in which pharmaceutical companies actually share our frustration when some drug war idiot comes along claiming THC causes schizophrenia.

Obviously, it’s unlikely that our goals will ever align perfectly with those of the pharmaceutical industry, but they’re clearly better at working with the DEA than we’ll ever be. Rather than viewing the situation as a threat to our continued progress, I think we need to recognize that various forms of industrialization will be the inevitable result of our hard work to de-stigmatize the drug. As that process unfolds, we’ll encounter numerous new and interesting opportunities to reframe the conversation about the dangers of marijuana. Even if this latest move by DEA is nothing more than a cynical attempt to thwart our progress somehow, I imagine it will backfire just as surely as every other tactic they’ve deployed in the drug war debate thus far.

The DEA is acting, and doing the exact same things as despots like Saddam Hussein, Moammar Gadhafi, Taliban, our sworn enemies.

They support lies that kill people, AKA, the war on drugs.

When our leaders treat the people as enemies, they are our enemies.

I wish there was a really smart lawyer out there that could take on the federal government in court, challenging their right to make war with their own people!

My father fought, and died for America. This is NOT the America he believed in because after staring down death on the battlefield, he did not believe in war.

When the government is forced to see the drug war’s cost in lives as their fault for forcing the prohibition of drugs, they will be forced to end it.

If the government can see another government killing it’s people for any reason, why can’t they see the deaths from the drug war?

Killing people to STOP them from killing themselves has to be seen as the genocide it has become…

falcore

as long as Monsanto and other GMO companies doesn’t get their hands on it and start changing the genome and attaching intellectual property rights to it. then this might be a step in the right direction.

Quixilvir

I agree completely with the comment above( I saw Food Inc. too) Furthermore, I hate to say it, but I think that this latest development will actually be detrimental to the cause. Once Big Pharm has their hands on something, it’s theirs. It’s no longer yours and mine, and we no longer have the “right” no make any decisions regarding its use, application and so on. THEY will now decide what purposes it serves, and how we should use it. I also believe that it will become a more severe “crime” to posses, cultivate and use marijuana in our own homes….Yeah, they said there would be the conspiracy theorists…well call me what you want, but those of us who have stood for countless hours at hemp rallies in Denver, and all accross the nation, KNOW, that this is not what we had in mind…I’m not trying to be negative about the whole thing, I’m just saying…

eltone

But will they stick to it. Their MO is to say one thing and do another, or say one thing then change it or deny it. Even the author of the article pointed that out at the end, “Even if this latest move by DEA is nothing more than a cynical attempt to thwart our progress somehow, I imagine it will backfire just as surely as every other tactic they’ve deployed in the drug war debate thus far.” I pray this is true. Couldn’t find it on AlterNet which is where they say this came from. Let’s hope this is true and binding.

Patron

its about freakin time now lets see were they go wit this

JJ Bones

Okay so if they admit that it has medicinal value now, shouldn’t they at the least remove it from a Schedule 1 to a 2?

medme

JJ Bones says:
April 18, 2011 at 6:27 am

“Okay so if they admit that it has medicinal value now, shouldn’t they at the least remove it from a Schedule 1 to a 2?”

you would think,,,,but IMO it could take years, you know how slow our government is when it wants to be….

dutchboy

i hate suffering, and im suffering.. what have we learned.. people are shit.. some are good.. but most endure and the others have no clue either dumb or haveingfun..

CannabisChris

I still say an admission like this should nullify all Federal marijuana prohibition laws on basis of being enacted upon false information in the first place. State medical marijuana laws should therefor apply. IMO

Great to see they finally, somewhat, almost admitted they have been lying :D

CannabisChris

Oh, and I totally agree on this not being the way I imagined it.

Making marijuana “legal” in this way is worse than keeping it illegal. Marijuana will just be commercialized to the hilt, and shoved down our throats in a synthetically altered, over-priced fashion from here on out, watch and see.

phatmo

Thanks for the information, I lve in Florida our Bill goes up next year, we need 60% of the vote to pass, Florida is in the Bible Belt, so we are going to need all the help we can get. Thanks

kennysamra

It will be legal soon I hope ! … The society needs to know that the drug users are not the problem. We just smoke are weed and stay at homem or enjoy the trip, we dont go out and murder people because we are high. And also the weed its not a open door to others drugs…. the drug dealer are, because when u get there and he say he dont got weed, he will try to push you some cocaine, or exctasy or watherever…… Its so easy to the governament says that the mary juana its cause of violece. But who will loss more with the legalization its the drug dealers and the responsable for the violence. So why we still unlegal ????

ah the double standard. good for drug companies but bad for the every day Joe.

dapperdan

Sure the pharacurdical companies want to make it a pill that is expensive and they can patten it. It won’t be a effective as natural oil. If the The Government would legalize it you could make your own medicine. Just another way the pharmacuedical industry and government want to control us.

dgmeansit

As far as the DEA is concerned, it is only a medicine if Big Pharma profits from it. I expect for the DEA to continue to deny any benefits the natural plant has to offer.

Cantibliss

If the government was a person, it would be diagnosed with schizoprenia. First, “Constitution”, “Thomas Jefferson”, “Abraham Lincoln”, “Hemp for Victory!”, then “Reefer Madness”, Nixon – Counter-Culture, Regan – Just Say No, Bush, and now MJ is Endorsed by the DEA, WTF?

The malicious part of the Gov + Big Pharma state of denial and unconstitional prohibition for over 70 years is at the expense of innocent people. The most harm that comes from ingesting MJ is being caught or dealing with criminals to get it. The only reason why it’s profitable, is because the street prices are jacked up so high because it is illegal.

I don’t think this is how our founding fathers envisioned a free thinking society!

Reschedule cannabis = problems solved!

bcainw

I
have come to the conclusion that all moneyed drug reform organizations
are worthless at best and pawns of the elites that pay them at worse.
I’m talking NORML, DPA, MPP, LEAP, ASA, and Stop the Drug War. Consider
this quote from “Stop the Drug War:”

“Conspiracy theories will
abound, of course, regarding the potential for a widespread campaign to
shut down state-level medical marijuana programs and instead shove
expensive pills down the throats of patients, while arresting providers
and cultivators who refuse to comply. That isn’t going to happen. As
much as the DEA and their corporate co-conspirators might fantasize
about it, a full-scale assault on the medical cannabis industry is
simply impossible from both a practical and political standpoint. These
laws were put in place by the people and they won’t be done away with
over our objections.”

Yet THAT is exactly what is occurring so
he really can’t call it a conspiracy. Have we got to the point where we
can no longer state the obvious when it is happening right before our
eyes? LOL.